


An Imperfect Understanding

by Zephyrfox



Series: Real Legend [7]
Category: GoldenEye (1995), James Bond (Craig movies), Legends (2014)
Genre: Demisexuality, Don't copy to another site, Fluff and Humor, M/M, Misunderstandings, Q's cats - Freeform, demisexual Q
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2019-01-18
Updated: 2019-01-18
Packaged: 2019-10-11 23:11:10
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 1,118
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/17456069
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/Zephyrfox/pseuds/Zephyrfox
Summary: All Q wants is to spend the day coding his new program. Instead, he has to straighten out a misconception with James. The cats, of course, have their own concerns.





	An Imperfect Understanding

**Author's Note:**

> Thanks to Jaimistoryteller for a quick beta read!

 

Q sat at his desk in his office at home, the flat silent around him, and typed a line of code. All his attention was focused on the computer. His world consisted only of his keyboard and monitor, and line after line of increasingly complex code — until a fuzzy paw tapped the side of his face with a _ mrrrow. _ He yelped, startled out of the coding zone, and looked to his right. Fort looked at him expectantly, one inky black paw extended to pat his face again. He glanced at the clock and noted the time. “It’s not time for your dinner yet. You have to wait.”

_ Mrrowow, _ Fort insisted, looking supremely unimpressed with his logic.

“Where’s your brother?” Q looked around, spotting Pax sitting on the back of the couch, watching him with wide, green-gold eyes. “Ah, there you are. Do you want to let me know it’s time for food, too?”

Predictably, neither cat answered him. He sighed. Of course he was a sucker for a starving cat, how could he not? He pulled out the bag of cat treats he kept stashed away on the shelf beside his computer and sprinkled them on the floor. “Here you go, just don’t tell James or Alec, hmmm?”

The cats fell to with loud purrs, and Q went back to his coding. The project was nearly done, he was sure of it.

 

~~~~

 

“Matthew?”

Q hummed absently, still focused on his computer. If he could figure out what was going wrong with this for loop, he might be able to fix — 

_ “Matthew.” _

The repeated use of his name instead of ‘Q’ finally penetrated his consciousness. He swung around in his chair to see James watching him from the doorway with a troubled expression. “What’s wrong?”

James came into the room, opening his mouth to speak, and then closing it again as one hand came to rest on the desk.

Q hadn’t seen James so hesitant or tentative since they were trying to find their balance with Alec returning from the dead. Dread washed over him, running chill fingers down his spine. The third member of their trio was out, shopping with their son. Had something happened? “Is it Alec?”

James’ ice blue eyes widened, but after a moment he shook his head. “Not… exactly. It’s….” He trailed off, watching Q almost miserably.

“Tell me, please. What’s wrong?” Q leaned forward to gently touch the back of his lover’s hand.

“Since Alec came back, you and I…” James trailed off, as if he didn’t know what he wanted to say.

Q bit his lip. He didn’t like the way this seemed to be going. Was James breaking up with him? But things had been going so well between the three of them — or so he’d thought. “Just  _ tell  _ me.”

“You and I haven’t had sex — made love — in months. It’s been Alec and me. I’m sorry, Q. It’s not fair to you, and I hadn’t noticed. Do you…” James shrugged helplessly. “Do you want me to leave Alec?”

Now it was his turn to gape, open mouthed, like a fish. In a bid for time so he could bring his racing thoughts to some sort of order, he asked, “What brought this on?”

“Alec and I were talking the other day, and I realized what we’d been doing.”

“And he took Aiden shopping, so you and I could talk?” 

James nodded.

“All right. First, sit down. Second —” he waited until James cleared papers off the couch opposite and sat. “You do remember that I’m demi, don’t you?”

“Right,” James began, sounding confused. “Demisexual. But what does that — why are you laughing at me?”

Q schooled his expression to something more serious. Even though they’d discussed his sexuality before, and he was sure that his two lovers understood what that meant and respected it, right now James was genuinely concerned that there was a problem with their relationship. “I’m sorry, love. Do you remember what happened when you convinced me to watch porn with you?”

“You were  _ bored,”  _ James said, sounding somewhat bewildered that anyone could actually be bored by sex.

“Right. It was incredibly dull watching strangers have sex. And that’s your answer. I need to have an emotional connection before I feel a sexual attraction. I suppose I might be more graysexual, since I have such a low sex drive, but I think demi fits me better. You and Alec enjoy sex with each other. And I, sometimes, very much enjoy watching the two of you. Sometimes I prefer to work on my computer or read. And on occasion, I enjoy having sex with both or either of you.”

“I thought you might be feeling ignored, lately. You’ve been quiet, and spending more time alone, in here.” James gestured, encompassing the computer room.

Q smiled. “I’ve been working on a project, a computer game. It’s meant to be a surprise for you and Alec, for our anniversary, so I’m not going to tell you more about it than that.”

“Our anniversary? Oh, fuck.” Panic sent James’ ice blue eyes wide again. “That’s coming up, isn’t it?” 

Q stifled a chuckle. He made sure all important dates were saved to his computer, with adequate lead times for any preparations that he might need to make. James and Alec became consumed with their missions, and since Q really preferred them to concentrate on staying alive, he didn’t mind if anniversaries or birthdays were late, or even forgotten completely. He turned to the computer and saved his work, then stood and faced James, smiling. “It is, and it doesn’t matter if you forgot. Now, budge up.” Q draped himself over James’ lap, cuddling close.

James automatically held him tight, and said fondly, “You really do like touching, don’t you?”

“Yes. I enjoy touching you and Alec. Just because I don’t always want sex, doesn’t mean I don’t want to be with you.  _ Both  _ of you. No more of this nonsense about leaving Alec for me, hmmm?” He stroked James’ chest. “Now, say ‘yes, Q’.”

James’ lips twitched into a lopsided smile. “Yes, Q.”

“Good. Now that we have  _ that  _ settled —”

_ Mrrrowowow! _

Q huffed a laugh, pressing his face into James’ chest for a moment. “Now we feed the cats, because they’re starving. Then, when Alec comes home, we can have a nice cuddle. And maybe, I might interesting in joining you two tonight.”

“Only if you want,” James said, smiling softly, and leaned down to kiss him.

Q lost himself in the soft press of lips and gentle brush of James’ tongue against his…

_ Mrrrrrrow! _

James dissolved into gales of helpless laughter, while Q groaned and got up to feed the cats.

 

**Author's Note:**

> I love reviews, comments, and any other sort of communication. Feel free to stop in to say hi - you can find me on Tumblr at leavesdancing.tumblr.com


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